127 

^a P86 

The 

Niagara Region 

in 

History 



THE 



Niagara Region 



IN 



History 



By Peter A. Porter 



Reprinted from the Niagara Power Number of Cassier's Magazine 



NEW YORK AND LONDON 
1895 






Copyriglited by the 

GASSIER MAGAZINE CO. 

1S95 

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 







'/^A.J^/?rytc^ 



Peter A. Porter is proraiueutly identi- 
fied with the interests of the city of Niagara 
Falls. As a member of the New York Stale 
Legislature in 1&86, he introduced the Niagara 
Tunuel Bill, under which the Niagara power 
is now being developed. 



THE NIAGARA REGION IN HISTORY. 



By Peter A. Porter. 




1 



, •«• 



^ii<^ 



THE OLD STONE CHIMNEY AT 
NIAGARA, BUILT IN I75O. 



IN 1764 Sir William John- 
son, commander of the 
English forces in the 
Niagara region, supplement- 
ing the treaty of the preced- 
ing year between England 
f'HL^ and France, assembled all 
■'^a the Indian warriors of 

thatregion, some 2000 
in number, comprising 
chiefly the hostile Sen- 
ecas, at Fort Niagara, 
and acquired from 
them, for the English 
Crown, together with 
other territory, a strip 
of land, four miles 
wide, on each bank of the Niagara river 
(the islands being excepted) from Lake 
Erie to Lake Ontario. The Senecas also 
ceded to him, personall)-, at this time, 
"as proof of their regard and of their 
knowledge of the trouble which he had 
had with them from time to time," all 
the islands in the Niagara river, and he, 
in turn, as compelled by the military 
law of that period, ceded them to his 
Sovereign. 

It is ot the territory included in 
the above two grants, a region now 
popularly known as "the Niagara 
frontier," that the writer proposes to 
treat. And a famed and famous terri- 
tory it is, for it would be difficult to find 
anywhere else an equal area of country 
(36 miles long and 8 miles broad, be- 
sides the islands) around which cluster 
so many, so important and such varied 
associations as one finds there. 

Through its centre flows the grand 
Niagara river, between whose banks the 
waters of four great lakes, — the water- 
shed of almost half a continent, — find 
their way to the ocean ; and through 
the centre of the deepest channel of this 
river runs the boundarv line between 



the two great nations of North Amer- 
ica. In it are located the Falls of Ni- 
agara, the ideal waterfall of the universe; 
in it are found the two government 
parks or reservations, established, re- 
spectively, by the State of New York 
and the province of Ontario, in order 
that the immediate surroundings of Ni- 
agara might be preserved, as nearly as 
possible, in their natural state and be 
forever free to all mankind. In it one 
meets with many and wondrous aspects 
of natural scenery ; in it one finds geo- 
logic records, laid bare along the river's 
chasm by the force of the water thou- 
sands of years ago, and which hold so 
high a place in that science, that among 
its classifications the name Niagara is 
applied to one of the groups. In it are 
found botanic specimens of beauty and 
rarity, and it is stated that on Goat 
Island, embracing 80 acres, are to be 
found a greater number of species and 
flora than can be found in an equal area 
anywhere else. In it are to be found, 
also, the development of hydraulic en- 
terprises which are regarded as stupen- 
dous even in this age of marvels ; while 
as to places noted for historic interest, 
one may truly say that it is all historic 
ground. 

Within sight of the spray of the Falls 
the red men, in ages long gone by, 
lived, held their councils, waged their 
inhuman warfares and ofiered up their 
human sacrifices. To this Niagara re- 
gion long ago came the adventurous 
French traders, the forerunners of the 
" coureurs de bois," believed to have 
been the first white men who ever gazed 
upon the Falls, though the name of the 
man to whom that honour belongs, and 
the e.xact date at which he saw them 
will probably forever remain unknown. 

Across Niagara's rapid stream went 
several of the early missionaries of the 

5 



NIAGARA IX HISTORY. 




THE FIRST KNOWN PICTURE OF NIAGARA FALLS. 

(Frotn Father Hennepin's " Xouvelle Decouverte," 1697.) 



Catholic church as they carried the t^os- 
pel to the various Indian tribes in the 
unknown wilderness. To this region 
came the French, first officially in the 
]3erson of La Salle; afterwards, by their 
armies, seeking conquust and the con- 
trol of the fur trade. At the mouth of 
the Niagara river the French established 
one of their most important posts. 
There they traded with, conferred with 
and intrigued with the Indians, making 
firm friends of some of the tribes and 
bitter enemies of others ; and during 
the fourscore years that France held 
sway on the American continent, this 
region was a famous part of her domain 
in the new world. 

Later on, steadily but surely driving 
the French before them, and finally 
totally depriving them of their posses- 
sions, came the English. Shortly after 
England became the undisputed owner 
of the region, the American Revolution 
began, and within twenty years after 
England had dispossessed France of 
this famous territory, she herself was 
compelled to recognize a new nation. 



formed by her own descendants, and to 
cede to it one-half, or, counting the 
islands, more than one-half of the lands 
bordering on the Niagara river. From 
that time on, the United States and 
Great Britain have held undisputed 
possession of all this wondrous section. 

Looking back in history for the first 
references to the Niagara region, we 
find them derived from Indian tradition 
or hearsay, and that, almost entirely 
by reason of the Falls and Rapids. 
However, it was not their grandeur, 
but the fact that the Indians were com- 
pelled to carry their canoes so many 
miles around tfiem that impressed them. 
Thus, the existence of a great fall at this 
point was known to the Indians all over 
the North American continent, we know 
not how far back ; certainly as early as 
the arrival of Columbus at San Salva- 
dor. 

^n 1535 Jacques Cartier made his 
second voyage to the St. Lawrence, 
and the Indians living along that river 
narrated to him what they had heard 
of the upper part of that stream, and of 



NIAGARA IN HISTORY 



the lakes beyond, mentioning, in con- 
nection therewith, a cataract and a por- 
tage. Lescarbot, in his "History of 
New France," pubhshed in 1609, tells 
of this in his story of Cartier's voyage. 
This is the earliest reference (1535) to 
the Great Lake region and Niagara's 
cataract. 

Champlain, in his ' ' Des Sauvages, ' ' 
published in 1603, speaks of a "fall," 
which, clearly, is Niagara, 
and on the map, in his 
"Voyages," published in 
1613, he locates a river 
with such approximate ex- 
actness as to be the Niagara 
beyond doubt, and in that 
river he indicates a " sault 
d'eau," or water-fall. 

In 1615 Etienne Brule, 
who was Champlain's inter- 
preter, was in that vicinity, 
in the territory of the Neu- 
ter nation, and may have 
been the first pale-face to 
have seen the Falls. In 
1626 the Franciscan priest 
Joseph de la Roche Dallion 
was on the Niagara river in 
the course of his missionary 
labors among the Neutrals. 
It is more than probable 
that at this date the Ni- 
agara route westward, as 
distinguished from the Ot- 
tawa route, was known and 
had been traversed by white 
men — the French traders or 
"coureurs de bois " previ- 
ously mentioned. In the 
1632 edition of his "Voy- 
ages," Champlain again, 
though inaccurately, lo- 
cates on his map a river 
which cannot be any other 
than the Niagara, and quite accurately 
locates also a "waterfall, very high, 
at the end of Lake St Louis (Ontario), 
where many kinds of fish are stunned 
in the descent." 

In 1640 the Jesuit fathers Brebeuf 
and Chaumonot undertook their mis- 
sion to the Neuter nation, the existence 
of the famous river of this nation having 
been familiar to the Jesuits before this 



date; They crossed from the westerly 
to the easterly shore of the Niagara 
river, recrossing again, near where the 
village of Lewiston now stands, when 
their mission proved unsuccessful. In 
the Jesuit Relations we find references to 
this region. In that of 1641, published 
in 1642, Father L'Allement speaks of 
"the Neuter nation, Onguiaahra, hav- 
ing the same name as the river," and 




FATHER HENNEPIN. 

(From an Edition of 1702.) 

in that of 164S, published in 1649, 
Father Ragueneau speaks of "Lake 
Erie wiiich is formed by the waters 
from the Mer Douce (Lake Huron), 
and which discharges itself into a third 
lake, called Ontario, over a cataract of 
fearful height." 

Sanson in his map of Canada, 1657, 
correctly locates the lakes and this re- 
gion, and calls the Falls " Ongiara 



NJAGARA IN HISTORY. 



Sauk." In Davity, 1660, Le Sieur 
Gendron refers to the Falls in the 
exact words of Father Ragueneau 
above. In his " Historije Canaden- 
sis," De Creuxius very nearly cor- 
rectly locates this region and the 
Niagara river, and calls the Falls " On- 
giara Cataractes." In 1669 La Salle 
made a visit to the Senecas who dwelt 
in what is now known as Western New 




KENE ROBERT CAVELIER, SIEUR DE LA SAL 

(From an Edition of 1688 ) 

York. With him went Fathers Dollier 
de Casson and Rene Gallinee, traveling 
as far as the western end of Lake On- 
tario, whence La Salle returned east- 
ward. Gallinee' s journal oi that jour- 
ney includes the earliest known descrip- 
tion of Niagara Falls, which is as fol- 
lows : 

"We found a river, one-eighth of a 
league broad, and extremely rapid, 
forming the outlet or communication 



from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. The 
outlet is 40 leagues long and has, from 
10 to 12 leagues above its embrochure 
into Lake Ontario, one of the finest falls 
of water in the world, for all the In- 
dians of whom I have inquired about it 
say that the river falls at that place from 
a rock higher than the tallest pines, — 
that is, about 300 feet. In fact, we 
heard it from the place where we were, 
although from 10 to 12 
leagues distant ; but the fall 
gives such a momentum to 
the water that its velocity 
prevented our ascending the 
current by rowing, except 
with great difficulty. At a 
quarter of a league from the 
outlet where we were it 
grows narrower and its chan- 
nel is confined between two 
very high, steep, rocky 
banks, inducing the belief 
that the navigation would 
be very difficult quite up to 
the cataract. 

"As to the river above 
the falls, the current very 
often sucks into this gulf, 
from a great distance, deer 
and stags, elk and roebucks, 
that suffer themselves to be 
drawn from such a point in 
crossing the river that they 
are compelled to descend the 
falls and are overwhelmed in 
the frightful abyss. I will 
leave you to judge if that is 
not a fine cataract in which 
all the water of that large 
river falls from a height ot 
.E. 200 feet with a noise that 

is heard not only at the 
place where we were, 10 or 
12 leagues distant, but also from the 
other side of Lake Ontario." 

Neither Gallinee, Champlain, nor any 
of the other writers quoted heretofore, 
ever saw the Falls. In 1678 Father 
Hennepin visited the Falls and in 1683 
published his first work, "Louisiana," 
in which he tells of the Niagara river 
and of the Falls themselves, calling them 
500 feet high. On Coronelli's map of 
16S8 the word Niagara first appears in 



NIAGARA IN HISTORY. 









I ^ 



NIAGARA IN HISTORY. 



cartography. In 1691 Father Le 
Clercq,, in his "Establishment of the 
Faith in New France," uses the words 
"Niagara Falls." In 1697 Father 
Hennepin published his "New Dis- 
covery," in which he gives the well 
known description of Niagara Falls, 
commencing' " betwi.xt the lakes On- 
tario and Erie there is a vast and pro- 
digious cadence of water which falls 
down after a surprising and astonishing 
manner insomuch that the universe 
does not afford its parallel." Later 
on, in the same work, he describes 
them again, giving their height as 600 
feet. He also gives in that work the 
first known picture of Niagara Falls, re- 
produced on page 6. Hennepin's two 
works as above, and a third, entitled 
" Nouveau Voyage," were translated 
into almost all the languages of Europe 
and by means of this, as well as by the 
work of Campanius Holm, published in 
1702, who reproduces Hennepin's 
sketch of Niagara, and by the works of 
La Hontan, published in 1703, and of 
others later on, this region and Niagara 
Falls became familiar to all Europeans. 
It was reserved for Charlevoi.x and 
Borassow, each independently of the 
other, in 1721, to accurately measure 
the height of the Falls. 

Hennepin was the first to use the 
modern spelling "Niagara," and he 
was followed by De Nonville, Coro- 
nelli and by all French writers since 
that time. English writers, on the 
other hand, did not uniformly adopt 
this spelling until the middle of the i8th 
century. The Neuter nation of Indians 
occupied all the territory now called 
"the Niagara Peninsula," by far the 
larger number of their villages being on 
the western side of the river. It was 
the Indian custom to give their tribal 
name to, or to take it from, the chief nat- 
ural feature of, the country which they 
inhabited ; hence, they were called 
" Onguiaahra, the same name as the 
river," as noted by Father Ragueneau. 
The Neuter nation were so called, be- 
cause, living between the Hurons on the 
west and the Iroquois on the east, — 
two tribes which were sworn enemies, — 
they were at peace with both, and in 



their cabins the warriors of these two 
nations met without strife and in safety. 
The Neuters, however, were frequently 
at war with other tribes, and eventually 
even their neutrality towards the Hu- 
rons and the Iroquois disappeared and 
about 1643 the Senecas, the most west- 
erly and also the most savage tribe of 
the Iroquois confederacy, attacked and 
annihilated the Neuters, their remnant 
being merged into the Iroquois. 

There are numerous waj'S of spelling 
the Indian name of this Neuter nation, 
thirty-nine of them being given in the 
inde-K volume of the Colonial History 
of the State of New York. The forms 
most commonly met with in early days 
were Jagara, Oneagerah, Onygara, 
lagara, Onigara, Ochniagara, Ognio- 
gorah, and those previously noted in 
this article. The word Niagara, ac- 
cording to Marshall, was derived by the 
French from Ongiara. The Senecas, 
when they conquered the Neuters, 
adopted that name as applied to the 
river and region, as near as the idiom 
of their language would allow ; hence, 
their spelling, Nyah-ga-ah. The word, 
thus derived through the Iroquois and 
from the Neuter language, is said to 
mean the "thunder of the waters," 
though this poetic significance has been 
questioned by some who claim that it 
signifies "neck," alluding to the river 
being the connecting link between the 
two lakes. The Iroquois language had 
no labial sound and all their words were 
spoken without closing the lips. They 
seem to have pronounced it " Nyah-ga- 
rah," and later on " Nee-ah-ga-rah," 
while in more modern Indian dialect, 
all vowels being still sounded, " Ni-ah- 
gah-rah ' ' was the ordinary pronuncia- 
tion. Our modern word "Niagara" 
should really be pronounced Ni-a-ga-ra. 

Many were the superstitions and 
legends which the Indians, living along 
the Niagara river and in the whole re- 
gion, held as sacred. To the Neuter 
nation, naturallv, the Falls of Niagara 
appeared in the nature of a divinity. 
From them they had taken their tribal 
name, and considered them the em- 
bodiment of religion and power. To 
them they offered sacrifices of many 



XL4GARA IN BIS TORY. 



II 



kinds, often journeying long- distances 
for the purpose. In the thunder of tlie 
Falls they believed they heard the 
voice of the Great Spirit. In the spray 
they believed they saw his habitation. 
To him they regularly and religiously 
contributed a portion of their crops and 
of the results of the chase, and exult- 
ingly offered human sacrifices and 
trophies on returning from such war- 
like e.xpeditions as they were compelled 
to undertake. To him each warrior 
frequently made offerings of his personal 
adornments and weapons, and as an 
annual offering of good will from the 
tribe and a propitiation for continued 
neutrality, and therefore existence, they 
sacrificed each spring the fairest maiden 
of their tribe, sending her over the 
Falls in a white canoe, which was filled 
with fruits and flowers and guided solely 
by her own hand. The honour of be- 
ing selected for this awful death was 
earnestly coveted by the maidens of 
that stoical race, and the clan to which 
the one selected belonged, held such 
choice to be a special honour to itself 
Tradition says that this annual sacri- 
fice was abandoned, because, one year, 
the daughter of the great chief of the 
tribe was selected. Her father betrayed 
no emotion, but on the fateful day, as 
the white canoe, guided by his daugh- 
ter's hand, entered the rapids, another 
canoe, propelled by a paddle in her 
father's hand, shot swiftly from the 
bank, followed the same channel and 
reached the brink and disappeared into 
the abyss but a moment after the one 
which bore his daughter. The tribe 
thought the loss of such a chief in such 
a way to be so serious a blow that the 
sacrifice was abandoned in order to pre- 
vent the possibility of a repetition. A 
more likely, but less poetic, reason for its 
abandonment lies in the belief that on 
the extermination of the Neuters, their 
conquerors, having no such inherent 
adoration for the Great Spirit of Ni- 
agara, and for many years not even 
occupying the lands of their victims, 
failed to continue the custom. The 
Neuter warriors also wanted to be bur- 
ied beside their river, as many e.xhumed 
skeletons at various points along its 



banks prove ; and the nearer to the 
Falls, the greater the honour. Goat 
Island is said to have been the burying 
ground reserved for great chiefs and 
brave warriors, and the body of many 
an Indian brave lies in the soil of that 
beautiful s|>ot. 

Prior to 1678 France laid claim to a 
vast area, now embraced by Canada 
and the northern portion of the United 
States, east of the Mississippi, includ- 
ing the Niagara region, by reason of 
early explorations and discoveries by 
her seamen, traders and missionaries. 
From that date, when La Salle began 
his westward journeys of exploration, for 
eighty years, she was a paramount force 
in that region, though duringthe last few 
years of that period her prowess and 
supremacy were waning and were swept 
away in 1759 by the capture of Quebec 
and Fort Niagara, the latter being the 
last of the important posts that she held 
in the long line of fortifications which 
connected the great tract, known as 
Louisiana, with her eastern Canadian 
possessions. From 1759, by occupa- 
tion, and from 1763, by treaty, England 
owned all this territory until 1776, when 
the Colonists demanded recognition as a 
separate nation. This England con- 
ceded in 1783, and thus relinquished all 
ownership of that portion of the Ni- 
agara region that lies east of the river, 
although it was not until after the ratifi- 
cation of Jay's treaty, in 1796, that 
England relinquished Fort Niagara ; 
nor until the treaty of Ghent, in 1816, 
was it absolutely conceded that most of 
the islands in the Niagara river be- 
longed to the United States. 

On December 6, 1678, La Salle 
anchored his brigantine of ten tons in 
the Niagara river, just above its mouth. 
He saw the value, from a military stand- 
point, of the point of land at the mouth 
of the river and straightway built there 
a trading post. Proceeding up the 
river to where Lewiston now stands, 
he built there a fort of palisades, and 
carrying the anchors, cordage, etc., 
which he had brought with him for that 
purpose, up the mountain side and 
through the forest to the mouth of Cay- 
uga creek, five miles above the Falls on. 



12 



-XIAGARA IN HISTORY. 



^ 





AA 



THE WHITE man's FANCY. 



NIAGARA IN HISTORY. 




THE RED MAN S FACT. 



14 



NIAGARA IX HIS r OR v. 







THE EUILtJING OF THE GRIFFON, 1679. . 

(Facsimile reproduction of the original copper-plate engraving, first published in 
Father Hennepin's "'Nouvelle Decouvcrte," Amsterdam, 1704 J 



the American side, where to-day is a 
hamlet bearing his name, he there built 
and launched the Griffon, the first ves- 
sel, other than Indian canoes, that 
ever sailed the upper lakes, and the 
pioneer of an inland commerce of un- 
told value. 

In 1687, the Marquis de Nonville, 
returning- from his expedition against 
the Senecas, fortified La Salle's trading 
post at the mouth of the ri\er, but it 
svas abandoned during the following 
year. It was, however, rebuilt in stone 
in 1725 by consent of the Iroquois, and 
thereafter maintained. The site of the 
present village of Lewiston, named in 
honour of Governor' Lewis of New 
York, — the head of navigation on the 
lower Niagara, — was the commence- 
ment of a portage of which the upper 
terminus was about a mile and a half 
above the Falls, the road traversed 
being, even now, called the "portage 
road." The upper end of this portage, 
at first merely an open landing place 
for boats, necessarily grew into a fortifi- 
cation, which was completed in 1750 
and was called Fort de Portage, or, by 
some, Fort Little Niagara. A short 
distance below the site of this fort the 
French built their barracks. These and 



the fort itself were burnt in IT59 by 
joncaire, who was in command, to pre- 
vent their falling into the hands of the 
victorious English, and he and his men 
retreated to a station on Chippewa 
creek, across the river. An old stone 
chimney, believed to be the first stone 
structure built in that part of the coun- 
try, and around which were built the 
French barracks, stands to day solitary 
and alone, the only reminder of the 
early commercial and military activities 
at this point. 

It was in 1759 that the English com- 
menced that short, memorable and de- 
cisive campaign which was forever to 
crush out French rule in North America. 
General Prideaux was in charge of the 
English forces thereabouts, and, carry- 
ing out that part of the plan assigned 
to him, collected his forces east of Fort 
Niagara on the shore of Lake Ontario. 
That fort had been strongly fortified, 
and this fact, coupled with its location, 
made its capture necessary for English 
success. Prideaux' s demand for its 
surrender having been refused, he laid 
siege to it. He was killed during the 
continuance of the siege, and the com- 
mand devolved on Sir William John- 
f.on, who pushed operations vigorously 



NIAGARA IN HISTORY. 



and captured the fort before French re- 
inforcements could arrive. 

Tiiese reinforcements had been sent 
from Venango, on Lake Erie, and, 
coming down the Niagara river, had 
reached Navy Island (Isle de Marine), 
then held by the French, when they 
heard of the fall of Fort Niagara. The 
certainty that the two vessels which had 
brought the troops and ammunition 
from Venango would be captured by 
the English, induced the French to take 
them, together with some small vessels 



nected with the great French and Eng- 
lish struggle. Champlain's early hos- 
tility to the Iroquois, when he sided 
with the Senecas against them, had 
made the Iroquois the firm friends of 
the English during all the subsequent 
years, and it had also endeared the 
French to the Senecas, even though 
the latter had subsequently joined the 
Iroquois confederacy. 

After the total defeat of the French 
and their practical surrender of all their 
territory in 1759, the old hatred of the 




THE CAPTURE OF FORT GEORGE, jSl^. 

(From an Old Engraving.) 



which had recently been built on Navy 
Island, over to the northern shore of 
Grand Island, lying close by, into a 
quiet bay, where they set them on fire 
and totally destroyed them. As late 
as the middle of the present century, 
portions of these vessels were clearly 
visible under water in the arm of the 
river, which, from this incident, has 
become known as " Burnt Ship Bay." 
One more historical point, the scene 
of the Devil's Hole massacre, is con- 



English on the part of the Senecas, 
abetted, no doubt, by French influences, 
led them to commence a bloody cam- 
paign against the English in 1763. 
They knew the English were, on a 
certain day, to send a long train of 
wagons, filled with supplies and ammu- 
nition, from Fort Niagara to Fort 
Schlosser, a station, built in 1761 by 
Capt. Joseph Schlosser of the English 
army, to replace Fort de Portage, which 
had been destroyed two years pre- 



i6 



N/AGAKA IX HISTORY. 



viously. They knew also that the 
military force accompanying the train 
was to be a small one. At a point, 
known as the Devil's Hole, about three 
miles below the Falls, and at the edge 
of the precipice, they ambushed this 
fated supply train and destroyed it, 
forcing both train and escort over the 
high bank, and killing all but three of 
the escort and drivers. They then cun- 
ningly ambushed the relief force, which 
at the sound of the firing had set out 
from Lewiston where the English main- 
tained a slight encampment, and killed 
all but eight of these. It was a striking- 
example of Indian warfare and of Indian 
shrewdness. Shortly after this, in 1763, 
the treaty between France and England 
was signed, whereby England became 
the absolute owner and master of the 
northeastern portion of the North 
American continent. 

No serious conflict marked England's 
rule in her new territory, acquired by 
so long and fierce a struggle and at 
so great a cost of lives and money. But 
thirteen years after the above treaty was 
signed, the American Revolution com- 
menced. Had Gen. Sullivan's expedi- 
tion against the Senecas in 1779, been 
successful, as planned, he would have 
pursued the dusky warriors who fled to 
Fort Niagara, and would have attacked 
and probably captured that fort, then 
in possession of the English ; but mis- 
fortune befel him on his westward 
march, and the Niagara region was 
never the scene of actual hostilities dur- 
ing that war. When it closed, England 
had lost and relinquished to the United 
States all that portion of this region that 
lies east of the Niagara river. 

The Niagara region, especially that 
part lying along the banks of the river, 
felt the full burden of the three years of 
border warfare between American and 
English forces, each with their Indian 
allies, known in history as the war of 
1S12. In the fall of 1S12, about four 
months after the declaration of war, 
Gen. Van Rensselaer established his 
camp just east of the village of Lewiston, 
and collected an army for the invasion 
of Canada. After some delay and one 
unsuccessful attempt to cross the river, 



many of his men reached the Canadian 
shore and promptly and easily occupied 
an advantageous position on Queenston 
Heights. Gen. Brock hastened from 
Fort George, at the mouth of the river, 
with English reinforcements, and, in 
endeavoring to recapture this point of 
vantage, was killed at the head of his 
troops. Other English reinforcements 
having arrived, the Americans were 
defeated and dislodged from their posi- 
tion, many being forced over the edge 
of the bluff. Most of these and many 
on the brow of the mountain were taken 
prisoners. Meanwhile, directly across 
the river, on the American side, in full 
view of the battle, were several hundred 
American volunteers who basely refused 
to go to the aid of their companions. 

The results of this first battle were 
most depressing to the American cause. 
At the foot of Queenston Heights an 
inscribed stone, set in place in i860 by 
the Prince of Wales with appropriate 
ceremonies, marks the spot where Gen. 
Brock fell, and on the heights above a 
lofty column was erected to his memory 
in 1826, as a monument of his country's 
gratitude. This was blown up by a 
miscreant in 1840, but was replaced in 
1853 by the present more beautiful 
shaft, within whose foundations Gen. 
Brock's remains lie buried. 

It was in November, 1812, that Gen. 
Alexander Smythe, of Virginia, com- 
manding the American army on this 
frontier, issued his famous bombastic 
circular, inviting everybody to assemble 
at Black Rock, near the source of the 
Niagara river and to invade Canada. 
" Come in companies, half companies, 
pairs or singly ; come anyhow, but 
come," was its substance, and about 
4000 men responded. But Smythe 
proved incapable, and having made 
himself a laughing-stock in many ways, 
among others in challenging Gen. 
Porter, who had questioned his courage, 
to a duel (which challenge was ac- 
cepted and shots were exchanged on 
Grand Island), the contemplated in- 
vasion was abandoned. 

In May, 1813, the Americans cap- 
tured Fort George and the village of 
Newark, both on the Canadian shore 



NIAGARA IN HISTORY. 



near the mouth of the river, and held 
them until December of that year. So 
effectual was American supremacy at 
this time, that the English Fort Erie, at 
the source of the river, and Chlppawa, 
just above the Falls, together with all 
barracks and store houses along the 
river, were abandoned, and the English 
evacuated the entire frontier. Fort 
Erie was promptly occupied by the 
Americans. Several minor attacks were 
made by small parties of English at 
points on the American side during 
1813, one at Black Rock, where the 
English were badly repulsed, being the 
most important. 

In December, 1813, the British as- 
sumed the offensive on their side of the 
river and soon Gen. McClure, who was 
in command of the American forces 
Holding Fort George, determined to 
abandon it and cross to Fort Niagara. 
He blew up Fort George and applied 
the torch to the beautiful adjoining 
village of Newark. This was the oldest 
settlement in that part of Canada, was 
at one time the residence of her lieu- 
tenant-governor, and was further noted 
as the place where the first Parliament 
of Upper Canada was held in 1792. Its 
destruction was in the line of military 
tactics which leaves nothing to shelter 
an enemy when they occupy evacuated 
ground ; but it was a severe winter, the 
snow was deep, and the sufferings of 
those whose homes were thus burnt, 
were excessive. 

The burning of Newark raised a storm 
ofwraththroughoutCanadaand England 
which stimulated the English forces to 
make great efforts for victory and re- 
taliation. In these they were decidedly 
successful, for ten days later, at three 
o'clock in the morning. Col. Murray, 
of the British Army, surprised and cap- 
tured Fort Niagara. Had Capt. Leon- 
ard, who was in charge of the Fort 
while Gen. McClure was at his head- 
quarters in Buffalo, been vigilant, the 
Fort would have, probably, been suc- 
cessfully defended. As it was, it fell 
an easy prey. Lossing says: ' ' It might 
have been an almost bloodless victory 
had not the unhallowed spirit of re- 
venge demanded victims." As it was. 



many of the garrison, including inva- 
lids, were bayonetted after all resist- 
ance had ceased. The British General 
Riall, with a force of regulars and 
Indians was waiting at Oueenston for 
the agreed signal of success, and when 
the cannon's roar announced the vic- 
tory, he hurried them across the river 
to the village of Lewiston, which was 
sacked and destroyed in spite of such 
opposition as the few Americans in Fort 
Gray on Lewiston Heights could make. 

After a temporary check on Lewiston 
Heights the British pushed on to Man- 
chester (that name having been given 
to it in anticipation of its ultimately 
becoming the great manufacturing vil- 
lage of America) as the settlement at 
the Falls was then called. That place, 
the settlement at Schlosser, two miles 
above, and the country for some miles 
back shared the fate of Lewiston ; the 
same was meted out to Youngstown, 
near Fort Niagara. The destruction of 
the bridge across the creek at Tona- 
wanda saved Buffalo from the same fate, 
but only for a few days. Gen. Riall 
crossed the river at Oueenston, and a 
few days later appeared opposite Black 
Rock which adjoined Buffalo. This he 
promptly attacked and captured. The 
hastily gathered and unorganized 
American forces not only offered little 
resistance, but hundreds deserted. 
Buffalo was burnt, only four houses 
being left standing, and many persons 
were killed. 

The opening of the campaign of 1S14 
found an American army at Buffalo, and 
on luly 3, Fort Erie surrendered to 
the "Americans. On July 5, the Ameri- 
cans met and, after a fierce fight, de- 
feated the British in the memorable 
battle of Chippawa, on the Canadian 
side, two miles above the Falls. Soon 
afterwards, the British retreated to 
Oueenston, followed by the Ameri- 
cans under Gen. Brown, who then de- 
termined to recapture Fort George ; 
but learning that the expected fleet 
could not co-operate with him, he 
changed his plans and returned to 
Chippawa. Gen. Scott, reconnoitering 
from this place in the late afternoon of 
July 25, found Gen. Riall with his re- 



i8 



NIAGARA IN HISTORY. 



inforced army drawn up in line of battle 
at Lundy's Lane. Gen. Scott, witli a 
nominal force, but with the hope of 
gaining time for the advent of Gen. 
Brown's army, immediately gave battle. 
Of the details of that battle, fought 
mainly by the glorious light of a sum- 
mer moon, and continued until after 
midnight, with the spray of Niagara 
drifting over the heads of the opposing 
armies and the thunder of the Falls 
mingling with the roar of the cannon, it 
is not possible to recount much. The 
central point on the hill was held by a 
British battery, and it was in response 
to an order to capture it that Col. 
Miller made his famous reply, " I'll try. 
Sir." He did try, and successfully, 
and the battery, once captured, was 
held by the Americans against oft- 
repeated and brave attacks by the 
British. 

When at last the British army re- 
treated, the Americans fell back to 
their camp at Chippawa, and before 
they returned the next morning, the 
British had once more, owing to the 
American General Ripley's negligence, 
occupied the field and dragged away 
the cannon which had been captured 
from them. The battle of Niagara 
Falls, Lundy's Lane, or Bridgewater as 
it is variously called was claimed as a 
victory by the British, and is still annu- 
ally celebrated, on the battlefield, as 
such. The Americans, too, regarded it 
as a substantial victory, and the United 
States Congress voted to Generals 
Scott, Brown, Porter, Gaines and Rip- 
ley gold medals for their services in this 
and other battles of the war. 

The American army now returned to 
Fort Erie which they strongly fortified, 
and where they were besieged on 
August 3, by the British. For ten days 
both armies were busy preparing for 
the inevitable and decisive contest. Just 
after midnight on August 14, the British 
attacked the fort, but were finally re- 
pulsed. From this time to September 
17, there was frequent cannonading, but 
on that date a sortie from the fort was 
made by the Americans, and was so 
boldly planned and so faithfully e.xe- 
cuted, that the British were completely 



routed, and Buffalo and Western New 
York saved from invasion. Lord Napier 
refers to this sortie as the only instance 
in modern warfare, where a besieging 
army was totally routed by such a 
movement. A few more desultory en- 
gagements occurred along the Canadian 
bank of the river, Gen. Izard having 
assumed command of the American 
army ; but the season was too far ad- 
vanced for any further offensive opera- 
tions on this peninsula, and Canada was 
abandoned. Fort Erie was mined, and 
on November 5, 1814, was laid in ruins. 
It still remains so, — a picturesque spot. 
Some space has been devoted to this 
war, although not a fraction of what its 
importance demands. During its con- 
tinuance almost every foot of land along 
both banks of the Niagara river was the 
scene of strife, of victory and defeat, of 
triumphs of armies and of bravery and 
heroism of individuals. 

The treaty of Ghent restored peace 
to both countries, to the delight of all, 
especially of the inhabitants along the 
frontier. The commissioners appointed 
under that treaty to settle the question 
of the boundary between the United 
States and Canada agreed subsequently 
that that line, " between Lake Erie and 
Lake Ontario should run through the 
centre of the deepest channel of the 
Niagara river, and through the point of 
the Horse Shoe Fall." Later years 
proved this to be a variable line as far 
as the point of the Fall is concerned, 
though this fact will never impair the 
validity of the boundary line. By the 
above decision Grand Island and Goat 
Island became American soil, and Navy 
Island fell under British rule. The 
frontier, especially on the American 
side, recovered rapidly from the effects 
of the war, for it was a section sought 
by settlers, and many who reached the 
Niagara river on a projected journey to 
lands farther west, became residents of 
the locality. 

Prior to 1825, all heavy goods were 
sent westwards by Lake Ontario vessels 
to Lewiston ; thence, were carted over 
the well-known "Portage road" to 
Schlosser, and there again reloaded into 
vessels which went up the Niagara 



NIAGARA IN HISTORY. 



19 



river, past Black Rock and Buffalo at 
the source of the river, and then out 
into Lake Erie. Freights from the west 
followed the opposite course, over the 
same route ; and this carrying trade 
along the frontier, controlled almost en- 
tirely by one firm, was a source of per- 
sonal wealth to its members, a means 
of livelihood to many a family, and a 
prominent factor in the speedy develop- 
ment of the region. On October 26, 1825, 
a cannon in the village of Buffalo, at the 
source of the Niagara river boomed 
forth its greeting, followed, a few sec- 
onds later, by another cannon, near 
Black Rock ; and thus thundered can- 
non after cannon, down the Niagara 
river, toTonawanda; thence, easterly to 
Albany, and south, along the Hudson 
river, to New York city, announcing 
the glad message that, at the source of 
the Niagara river, the waters of Lake 
Erie had just been let into that barely 
completed water-way, the Erie Canal. 
The completion of the canal built up 
Buffalo, but at the same time, checked 
the rapid growth of the northern portion 
of the region, by causing a total sus- 
pension of traffic over the old portage. 
Two events, entirely dissimilar and 
in no way connected with warlike opera- 
tions, occurred in this region in the year 
1S26, and each attracted the attention 
of the whole world. The first was the 
proposal of Major Mordecai M. Noah 
to create a second City of Jerusalem 
within clear view of the Falls of Niagara, 
by buying Grand Island, comprising 
some 18,000 acres, and there building 
up for the Hebrew race an ideal com- 
munity of wealth and industry. He 
even went so far, in his assumed capa- 
city of the Great High Priest of the 
project, as to lay the corner stone of 
the future city of Ararat. This he did, 
not even within the boundaries of his 
proposed city, but some miles away, on 
the altar of a Christian church in Buffalo, 
to which church, clad in sacerdotal 
robes, attended in procession by mili- 
tary and civic authorities, local societies, 
and a great concourse of people he was 
impressively escorted. The Patriarch 
of Jerusalem, however, refused his 
sanction to the project, money did not 



pour in to its support, and it was ulti- 
mately abandoned. The cornei stone 
was, however, built into a small brick 
monument at White Haven, a point on 
Grand Island opposite Tonawanda, and 
is now 'n the rooms of the Buffalo 
Historical Society. 

The other event was the reputed 
murder of William Morgan, of Batavia, 
who had threatened to disclose the 
secrets of the masonic fraternity in 
print. He was quietly seized and taken 
away from his home, and was traced, 
in the hands of his abductors, through 
Lewiston, to Fort Niagara. There he 
was confined in what is still called 
"Morgan's Dungeon," a windowless 
cell that was probably used as a powder 
magazine. All trace of him was lost 
after he entered the fort, and tradition 
says he was taken from his dungeon 
by night, placed in a boat, to be sent, 
as he was told, to Canada, rowed out 
on Lake Ontario, and forced into a 
watery grave. Several persons were 
arrested and tried for his murder, but 
no proof of their being directly con- 
cerned in the matter, nor, in fact, any 
direct proof of Morgan's death being 
introduced, they were discharged. 
Some persons, however, were sentenced 
to imprisonment for conspiracy in con- 
nection with the matter. Thus the 
episode upon which the famous, power- 
ful and widespread anti-masonic agita- 
tion was based, occurred in, and became 
an integral part of Niagara's history. 

In the same year, the first survey and 
report were made at Lewiston on a pro- 
ject, which, so far as any commence- 
ment of it is concerned, is now as re- 
mote as it was then. Yet, it is a pro- 
ject which has a national importance, on 
which, in at least four surveys, the 
United States Government has em- 
ployed some of its greatest engineers, 
and one which has, on numerous occa- 
sions, been discussed and advocated by 
commercial bodies, and in the halls of 
the United States Congress ; namely, 
a ship canal, of a capacity large enough 
to float the largest war vessels around 
the Falls of Niagara. From a point 
from two to four miles above the Falls, 
to the deep and quiet waters near 



20 



NIAGARA IN HISTORY. 



Lewiston, has been the route most 
generally approved for such a canal, of 
which the cost would be enormous. The 
resulting benefits, howe\er, especially 
as the population and wealth of the 
United States increase, might be ines- 
timable, especially in the event of a war 
with England and Canada. 

The Niagara region again became the 
theatre of war in 1S37, when the 
Patriots undertook to upset the Govern- 
ment of Canada. While the first revolt 
occurred at ^'ork, now Toronto, the 
entire Canadian bank of the Niagara 
river was kept in a ferment for several 
months. Navy Island was at one time 
the principal rendezvous of the Patriots, 
and from there, on December 17, 1837, 
William Lyon Mackenzie, the leader, 
signing himself "Chairman pro tern of 
the provincial (a printer's error, which 
should read provisional) government of 
the State of Upper Canada," issued his 
famous proclamation to the inhabitants 
of the Province. 

Without reference to the various in- 
trigues carried on all along the frontier 
by the Patriots with their American 
sympathizers, of whom there were, 
doubtless, a goodly number, the writer 
would mention only the crucial event of 
the war, the Caroline episode. It was 
openly charged by the Canadians that 
substantial aid was being rendered from 
the American side to the Patriots, both 
by private individuals in various ways, 
and especially by reason of the non-in- 
terference of the national and New 
York State authorities when informed, 
on credible testimony, that arms and 
amunition were being shipped and other 
aid was being furnished from American 
soil to the Canadian rebels. This feel- 
ing was so bitter on the part of the 
English that it is not surprising that 
they seized the first opportunity for 
retaliation. 

A small steamer, the Caroline, had 
been chartered by some people in 
Buffalo to run between that city. Navy 
Island where the insurgents were en- 
camped, and Schlosser, on the Ameri- 
can side, where there was a landing 
place for boats and a hotel. They 
maintained that it was a private money- 



making venture, transporting the sight- 
seers to the Patriot's camp ; but from 
the Canadian's view the real object was 
to convey provisions and arms to their 
enemies. On the night of December 
29, 1837, the Caroline lay moored at 
Schlosser dock. The excitement of the 
rebellion had drawn many people to 
this locality, the little hotel was filled 
and some persons had sought a night's 
lodging on the boat. 

At midnight, six boats, filled with 
British soldiers, sent from Chippawa by 
Sir Allan McNab, silently approached 
the Caroline. The soldiers promptly 
boarded her, drove off all on board, 
both crew and lodgers, cut her adrift, 
set her on fire, and again taking to 
their boats, towed her out to the middle 
of the river and ca,st her loose. And a 
glorious sight, viewed merely from a 
scenic standpoint, it was. The clear 
dark sky above and the cold dark body 
of water beneath. Ablaze all along her 
decks, her shape clearly outlined by 
the flames, she drifted grandly and 
swiftly towards the Falls. Reaching 
the rapids, the waves extinguished most 
of the tlames ; but, still on fire, racked 
and broken, she pitched and tossed 
forward to and over the Horse Shoe 
Fall, into the gulf below. The whole 
affair, the incentive therefor, the 
methods employed, and the manner of 
the attack caused intense excitement, 
and once again the Niagara frontier was 
threatened with war, and the militia 
along the border were actually called 
into the field. 

Long diplomatic correspondence fol- 
lowed, the British Government assum- 
ing full responsibility for the claimed 
breaches of international law and the 
acts of her officers. During the melee 
at the dock, one man, Amos Durfee, 
was killed. A British subject, Alex- 
ander McLeod, claimed to have been 
one of the attacking force, was soon 
after arrested on American soil and was 
tried for the murder in New York State, 
but was finally acquitted. War was 
wisely averted, but another fateful chap- 
ter had been added to Niagara' s history. 

With the exception of the Fenian 
outbreak on the Canadian side of the 



NIAGARA IN HISTORY. 



21 



river in 1 865, the region has been free 
from war's alarms since the days of the 
Patriots. The Fenian outbreak was 
one of the results of the plan of the 
revolutionary Irishmen to oppose the 
English Government, and to compel 
that government to restore Ireland's 
rights. The Fenian hostility to Canada 
was solely because of the fact that the 
latter was an English dependency. The 
special time was selected, because of the 
actual service that many loyal Irishmen 



In 1885, theStateof New York, after 
an agitation by prominent men for sev- 
eral years, purchased the land on the 
American side, including Goat Island 
and all the smaller islands adjacent to 
the Falls, and above and below them, 
for a State Reservation. In 1887, the 
Province of Ontario, Canada, took a 
similar action. The Canadian Govern- 
ment, many years ago, with rare fore- 
sight had reserved a strip of land, sixty- 
six feet wide, along the water's edge 




THE STKAMl-K CAK 



ji.iNi: i;i KN r am. iorced over the falls on December 29, 1S37. 
(From au Old Engraving.) 



had just then seen in the United States 
army during the Rebellion. Of actual 
hostilities on this frontier there was but 
one occurrence during the brief agita- 
tion, fought on the Canadian side 
opposite Buffalo, from which city the 
Fenians invaded Canada. It was 
known as the battle of Ridgeway, the 
main contest having been at that point, 
with a subordinate engagement at a 
hamlet called Waterloo, close to the 
water' s edge. The Fenians were tempo- 
rarily successful, but were ultimately 
entirely defeated and their invading 
force quickly dispersed. 



above the Falls, and along the edge of 
the high bank below them, from Lake 
Erie to Lake Ontario, as a military 
reserve. This is now under the control 
of the Canadian Park Commissioners, 
and, together with the additional lands 
acquired near the Falls, and the land 
around Brock's Monument, forms an 
ideal government reservation. 

The honour of first suggesting the 
preservation of the scenery about the 
Falls has been claimed for many per- 
sons. Others, later on, suggested it 
officially ; others still, advocated it 
more publicly and more persistently, 



22 



NIAGARA IN HISTORY. 




L Of Ci '^ RECENT VIEW OF NIAGARA FALLS. 



NIAGARA IN HISTORY. 



2,^ 



but the first real suggestion, though 
made without any reference to details, 
came from two Scotchmen, Andrew 
Reed and James Matheson, who, in 
1835, in a work describing their visit as 
a deputation to the American churches, 
first broached the idea that "Niagara 
does not belong to Canada or America. 
Such spots should be deemed the prop- 
erty of civilized mankind, and nothing 
should be allowed to weaken their effi- 
cacy on the tastes, the morals, and the 
enjoyment of men." 

Such, in the ordinary acceptation of 
the word and in the briefest form, is an 
outline of the history of the Niagara 
region. Many points and facts of in- 
terest have necessarily been left un- 
touched, but brief reference should be 
made to the old tramway, built from 
the water's edge, at the very head of 
navigation on the lower river, up the 
almost perpendicular bank, 300 feet 
high, close to Hennepin's " three moun- 
tains." It was used in very early days, 
probably before the American Revolu- 
tion, for raising and lowering heavy 
goods between the vessels and the port- 
age wagons, and consisted of a flat car, 
on broad runners, moving on wooden 
rails. It was raised and lowered by a 
windlass, and this latter was operated 
by Indian labour then accessible only 
at the Indians' own price. Braves who 
ordinarily would scorn to work at any 
manual labour, gladly toiled all day for 
a plug of tobacco and a pint of whiskey. 
The tramway was notable as being the 
first known adaptation of the crude 
principle of a railroad in the United 
States. 

It may not be amiss to mention also, 
the reservation of the Tuscarora Indians, 
east of Lewiston, where the half-breed 
remnants of the last-embraced tribe of 
the Six Nations now reside, cultivating 
their fields, and educating their children 
under the care of the State. A tribute 
also is due to Canadian foresight in the 
building of the Welland Canal which 
connects Canada's frontage on the 
Great Lakes with her system of St. 
Lawrence canals to the seaboard. 
Mention, finally, should be made of the 
modern suggestion of a ship railway 



around the Falls, touching, at its termi- 
nals, about the same points on the 
upper and lower river as those held in 
view in the previously-suggested ship 
canal, and proposing, in the ascent and 
descent of the Lewiston mountain 
(which was the old shore of Lake 
Ontario before it receded to its jiresent 
level), as remarkable a triumph of engi- 
neering skill as was shown in the 
enormous projected locks and one hun- 
dred-acre basin of the ship canal. 

Next, glance back to the many Indian 
villages which, long years ago, dotted 
the region, the four or more of the 
Neuter nation, or Kahkwas, on the 
eastern side of the river, and a much 
larger number on the western side ; 
later on, to the gradual occupation of 
these lands by the Senecas, almost three 
generations after their ancestors had 
annihilated the Neuters ; then, to the 
Seneca village, built on the site of the 
present city of Buffalo, and then to the 
one built years ago on the site of the 
village still called Tonawanda, where, 
of late years, at the " long house," was 
annually held the council of the 
remnants of the Si.x Nations ; and then 
at the docks in that village where once 
floated the Indian's canoe, and where 
now is seen the maze of vessels whose 
cargoes have, in the last two decades, 
built up the commercial trade of this, 
the second largest lumber market in 
America. 

Turn, next, to the geological page 
and recall the ever fresh and still much- 
discussed question as to the ages that 
it has taken the Falls to cut their way 
back from Lewiston to their present 
location ; consider, too, the question 
regarding the time when a great inland 
sea covered the whole region, of which 
proof is, even to-day, found in the 
shells which underlie the soil on Goat 
Island and the adjacent country. Con- 
sider, further, the query as to when 
and why the great flood of waters 
abandoned its old channel which ran 
westward from the whirlpool to the 
edge of the bluff at St. Davids, far to 
the west of the present outlet of the 
river into Lake Ontario, and how that 
old channel, still easily traceable, was 



24 



NIAGARA JN HISTORY. 



filled up to nearly the level of the sur- 
rounding country. 

Look also at the view, given in very 
recent years by nature, of how her forces 
worked to excavate the Niagara gorge 
in the mass of old Table Rock, left hang- 
ing over the abyss for years and falling 
by its own weight in 1S53. Remember 
the thrilling trip of the little steamer 
"Maid of the Mist," which, from the 
quiet waters of her usual, circumscribed 
limit below the Falls, was, in 1861, 
taken through the mad rapids safely 
into the whirlpool and, thence, through 
the lower rapids into Lake Ontario, — 
the only vessel that, during the 100 
years of Oueenston's existence as a port 
of entry, ever entered it from up-stream; 
and which vessel was compelled by the 
canny officer then in charge of the port, 
to take out entrance and clearance 
papers, although, according to these, 
she carried ' ' no passengers and no 
freight." The trip of that little steamer 
proved, so far as the river below the 
Falls was concerned, what the courts 
have since decided, that the Niagara 
river throughout its entire length is a 
navigable stream. 

Finally, think of Niagara as the 
Mecca of all travelers to the New World, 
think of 

" what troops of tourists have encamped upon 
the river's brink. 
What poets have shed from countless quiUs, 
Niagaras of ink." 

Turn also to the long list of noted 
persons who have paid their devotions 
and tributes at Niagara's shrine. Poten- 
tates and princes have come, gazed on 
the Falls, and gone away, their visit to 
Niagara, perhaps like their lives, color- 
less and without a trace. Then, with 
greater satisfaction, turn to the large 
number of famous men and women, un- 
crowned, but still, by reason of their 
abilities, rulers of the people, who by 
their words, their pens, or their pencils, 
have given their impressions of the 
cataract to the world, and have, at least, 
earned for themselves thereby the right 
to be allowed a niche in Niagara's 
temple of fame. And numerous are the 
names of men and women who, in these 
and other ways, have connected their 
names with Niagara, embracing the 



leaders in every branch of science, 
knowledge and art. 

There is yet another set of men whose 
greatest notoriety has been acquired at 
Niagara. Among these are Francis 
Abbott, "the hermit of Niagara," 
whose solitary life, close to the Falls 
themselves, and his death by drowning, 
have stood as a perpetual proof of the 
influence of the great cataract on human 
nature; Sam Patch, w^hose daring led 
him to make two jumps from a scaffold, 
100 feet high, into the deep waters at 
the base of the Goat Island clifif, safely 
in both cases, although, not long after- 
wards, a similar attempt at the Genesee 
Falls proved to be his last ; Blondin, 
whose marvelous nerve led him repeat- 
edly, and under various conditions, to 
cross the gorge on a tight-rope ; Joel 
Robinson, whose life was often risked 
thereabouts to save that of others ; 
and Matthew Webb, whose prowess as 
a swimmer led him to try, unaided by 
artificial appliances, to swim through 
the whirlpool rapids, in which attempt 
he lost his life. 

Of early Indian names on the frontier, 
two are specially prominent, — Red 
Jacket, a Seneca, the greatest of all 
Indian orators, who spent most of his 
long life near Buffalo, and died there, 
and who fought, with the rest of his 
tribal warriors, in the American army 
in the war of 18 1 2 ; and John Brant, son 
of the famous Joseph Brant, a Mohawk, 
educated mainly at Niagara at the 
mouth of the river in Canada, whose 
first leadership in war was as an ally 
of the British at the battle of Oueenston. 

Forever and inseparately connected 
with the Niagara region will be the 
names of all of the persons here referred 
to, some mentioned merely as members 
of a class, others individually. Among 
the first on this roll of honour, as they 
were among the first to view, depict, 
and describe the Falls, are the names 
of La Salle and Hennepin, — the intrepid 
explorer, and the noble, though much 
villified, priest, for since 1678 there has 
been no portion of the globe to which 
the attention of mankind has been more, 
and in more ways, attracted than to 
this Niagara region. 



SEP J 



LIBRfiRY OF CONGRESS 



llllliiitiillrillilll 

014 221 290 m 



